Putting green



April 27 1926.

H. E. MAURER PUTTING GREEN Filed Oct. 28, 1924 Patented Apr. 27, 1926.

UNITED STATES HENRY E. MAURER, OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA.

PUTTING GREEN.

Application filed October 28, 192-1. Serial No. 746,340.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY E. MAURER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Long Beach, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Putting Green, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to portable reens for putting on and an object of the invention is to provide a putting green of this type that can be made to very closely simulate the natural utting greens as regards the effect on the all played thereon.

On a golf course, there are eighteen putting greens, each of which, on the best courses, consists of an area of turf that is generally more or less rolling, and positioned in said turf is a hole about four inches in diameter into which the player endeavors to put the ball. The different putting greens on a golf coursevary in contour and it is one of the objects of this invention to provide a practice putting green that can be readily altered from time to time to change the slope thereof and-thus afford the same amount of practice for the player as would result if the player were practicing on a. number of different putting greens on a golf course.

Another important object of the invention is to eject the ball from the hole after it has been layed into the said hole.

Othero jects and advantages will appear in the subjoined detailed description.

The accompanying drawingsillustrate the invention:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a putting green constructed in accordance with the provisions of this invention, portions of the fabric covering and of the padding being broken away to'disclose one of the hinges.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of Fig. 1 from the left thereof.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of Fig. 1..

Fig. 4 is an inverted plan view of the putting green.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross section on the line indicated by 55, Fig. 3.

There is provided an elongate floor of any suitable construction, said floor, in this instance, comprising two hingedly connected sections 6, 7, the hinges bein indicated at 8. The hinges :8 are prefera ly positioned "fin the upper face of the floor so that the sections will foldvwith their upperfaoes toward one another. In this particular instance, the sections 6, 7 are constructed of a base 9 of wood or other suitable flexible material, a fabric pad 10 of carpet and a thinner fabric covering 11 of Turkish toweling or other material having a nap that will offer an appreciable amount of resistance to the rolling of a golf ball thereon.

The floor 6, 7 has a substantially level portion 32 for the lie of the golf ball a and is otherwise sloping, one end being adapted to rest directly on the floor of a room and the other end being rockably mounted several inches above the floor by a support 12 The section 7 is provided on its under face with a support 13 positioned near the hinges 8 so as to aid in su porting the middle portion of the floor 6, The floor 6, 7 may be stiffened longitudinally, when it is unfolded for use, by strips 14 which extend across the joint between the sections 6, 7 and which are detachably secured in place by pivoted catches 15 of well known construction, some of said catches being pivoted to the section 6 and some to the section 7. The floor is not braced transversely and is of sufiiciently thin material so that it may be twisted longitudinally.

The sup ort 12 comprises a standard 16 and a sha t 17, the shaft being secured to the under face of the section 6 along the median line thereof and being supported in a bearing 18 in the upper end of the standard 16. The support 12 permits of lateral rocking of the upper end of the floor 6, 7 to different angles with the horizon transversely of the floor. The construction of the floor 6, 7 being flexible, the rocking of the up or end of the floor produces a twist longitudinally of the floor. Near the upper end of the section 6 and substantially along the longitudinal center line of said section, is a ball-receivin means which, in this instance, is formed by cutting a hole 19. It will be clear that, when the floor is not tilted from side to side, the floor will slope upwardly. to the hole 19 and the floor will be level transversely. When the upper end of the floor is rocked toward one side or the other, the floor will be caused to slope 'upwardl toward the hole on one side thereand ownwardly toward the hole on the other side thereof. 1

Any suitable means may be provided for holding the upper end of the floor in the diiiere'nt positions to which it may be.

, rocked. In this instance such means comprises a pivoted arm 20, the pivot 21 of said arm being horizontal and connecting the intermediate portion of the arm with to selectivel engage abutments 22 pro ecting from t e outer face of the standard I 16. Assuming that the floor is in the neutral position shown in Fig. 2 and that it is desired to rock it into the position indicated in broken lines in said figure, the upper end of the arm 20 will be grasped by the operator and moved to the right in Fig. 3 to release the lower end of the arm 20 from one-of the abutments 22, and said arm will then be turned counter-clockwise in Fig. 2 to bring the lower end thereof into alinement with one of the s aces between adjacent abutments 22 and e upper .end of the arm 20 will be moved to the left in Fig. 3 so as to force the lower end of the arm between the abutments.

The invention may be used as thus far described, but I have provided means for" supporting and ejecting a golf ball from the hole 19 and these means are constructed as follows: A lever 23 is pivoted at 24 to the shaft 17, the lever being L-shaped and one leg of said lever having its upper end inaxial alinement with the hole 19 and normally positioned sufliciently close to the floor section. 6 to prevent dropping of a golf ball out of the bottomiof the hole 19. The end of the lever 23..that is adjacent to the hole 19 constitutes a circular ballsii' or't .25 of sli htlyless diameter than theholeso that w en the lever 23 is moved upwardly the ball support 25 will pass upwardly in'tothe hole 191I-an"d thus eject the ball from the hole. I

The hole 19 and ballea' port 25 together constitute one form of 'bal retention means and such means may be otherwise constructcd, if desired, within the scope of the invention.

,A lever 23 may be operated by any suitable means and, in this'instance, said means comprises a cable or cord 26 and a lever 27, said cable being connected to an intermediate portion of the lever and the lever being pivoted at one end at 28 to one of the lower corners of the, floor section 7 3 The lever 27 is horizontal, .being substantially flush with the floor section 7 and projecting a short distance beyond one edge of said section so that the player may readily trip tlie lever 27 by engaging the projecting .end

with his foot or the putter, said putter beingthe name of the club used for playing the ball into the hole. The cable 26 is secured to the lever 23 at an intermediate point on said lever and passes through 'of the ball, in golf parlance.

guides 29 which are secured to the under face of the floor.6, 7 so that the cable slopes upwardly from the lever 23 to the nearest guide 29, thus causing the lever to be raised when the cable is pulled.

It is to be understood that the putting green described above may me employed merel for practicing putting for the game offgo f,-or that it may be used as a game apparatus for a putting contest to ascertainwhich one of several players can sink or hole out the most puts. To use the putting'zgreen, described above, the player laces the ball on the level portion of the cor section-7. This is termed the lie He then strikes the ball withthepiltteflin a manner wellunderstood in the game of golf, in an endeavor to drive the ball into the hole 19.

The upward slope of the floor toward the hole makesthis more or less difficult. Assuming that thearm 20 has been vertical for this shot, to increase the difiiculty of the shot, the upper end of the floor will be adjusted to give it a lateral slope and it will then be necessary for the player to direct the ball toward that side of the hole that is higher than the other side instead of shooti g straight for the hole as before. Vvhen the ball enters the hole 19, the support 25 will prevent it from passing therethrough and the ball will be retained in the hole until the player desires to release it, at which time he will operate the lever 27, causing the ball-su ort 25m be elevated sufficiently to thrust the ball upwardly from the hole, whereupon said ball rolls downthe inclined ,fio'or to near the lower end thereof in position for again playing it.

inc

It will be noted that whether or not the ball enters the hole, it is returned to the lower end of the floor, thus enabling the played to practice without leaving his position'jat the lower end of'the floor.

While any suitable fabric may be used for the covering 11, I have di'scovered'that Turkish toweling gives ahout the same character of surface asregards resistance to the rollof the golf ball as the fairly closecut turf on the putting greens of the standard golf courses. a

It may be desirable to provide means to preventthe ball from rolling over the edges of the floor 6, 7 and, therefore,;the longitudinal and upper edges of the floor are flanged as indicated at 30, 31.

I claim:

1. A putting green comprising an eloning means at diiierent angles tothe horizon transversely of the floor.

LA putting green comprising an elongate floor having ball-retention means near one end, the opposite end portion being substantially level for the lie and said floor sloping upwardly from the level portion to the ball-retention means, and means to hold the floor portion adjacent to the ballretention means at difierent angles to the horizon transversely of the floor.

5. A putting green comprising an elongate floor having ball-receiving means near one end, the opposite end portion being substantially level for the lie, said floor sloping upwardly from the level portion to the ball-receiving means and being normally level transversely of the floor, and means to hold the floor in a twisted. position longitudinally thereof.

(3. A putting green comprising an elongate floor having ball-retention means near one end, the opposite end portion being substantially level for the lie, said floor slop-- ing upwardly from the level portion to the ball-retention means and being normally level transversely of the floor, and means to hold the floor in atwisted position longitudinally thereof.

7. A putting green comprising an elongate flexible floor having ball-receiving means near one end, the opposite end portion being substantially level for the lie, said floor sloping upwardly from the level portion to the ball-receiving means, means to rockably support the upper end of the floor, and means to hold said upper end in the position to which it is rocked.

8. A putting green comprising an elongate fiexible floor having ball-receiving means near one end, the opposite end portion being substantially level for the lie, said floor sloping upwardly from the level portion to the ball-retention means, means to rockably support the upper end of the floor, and means to hold said upper end in the position to which it is rocked.

9. A putting green comprising an elongate flexible floor having ball-receiving means near one end, means to rockably support said end of the floor, and means to hold said upper end in the position to which it is rocked.

10. A putting green comprisin an elongate flexible floor having ball-retention means near one end, means to rockably support said end of the floor, and means to hold said upper end in the position to which it is rocked.

Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 16 day of October 1924.

HENRY E. MAURERQ 

